Performance Reports
Quarterly Hospital Performance Report: July to September 2008 (new format)
Emergency Department performance
From July to September 2008 there were 502,807 attendances at NSW public hospital Emergency Departments (EDs), a decrease of 12,587 attendances (2.5%) from the same quarter last year. During the same period, admissions from EDs increased by 3,072 (2.7%) to reach 114,561.
Triage Performance remained above benchmark levels in four of the five Triage categories, with only Triage 3 performance (67%) falling below the recommended threshold (75%).
Emergency Admission Performance (the percentage of admissions transferred from the ED within 8 hours) was 70%, while Off Stretcher Time performance (the percentage of ambulance arrivals transferred to the care of the ED within 30 minutes) was also 70% for the quarter.
Admitted patients
There were 401,225 admitted patient episodes this quarter, an increase of 9,855 episodes (2.5%) from the same period last year. The average length of stay for acute admitted patients fell slightly to 3.6 days.
There were 18,270 babies born an increase of 68 babies (0.4%) from the same period last year.
Elective Surgery
The proportion of Elective Surgery patients who were admitted within the waiting time recommended by their doctor reached 91% this quarter, increasing from 87% in the same period last year.
In Category 1, 93% of patients were admitted within 30 days, with a median waiting time of 10 days. In Category 2, 81% of patients were admitted within 90 days, with a median waiting time of 49 days. In Category 3, 96% of patients were admitted within 365 days, with a median waiting time of 121 days.
Demand on Emergency Departments
NSW Health, like other states, experienced a significant increase in Emergency Department (ED) demand in 2005/06. In August 2007 Booz Allen Hamilton was commissioned to analyse what the key drivers of demand were and to assess underlying root causes contributing to the increase in ED demand. The study was, in particular, focused on exploring the question whether the demand for emergency department services had been increasing as a result of 'demand transfer' from primary care.